Lacrosse is a game which has been played on the North American Continent for many hundreds of years. In recent years the game has taken on a more formalized structure and has involved league play at the collegiate and amateur level, as well as some professional level play. There are rule-making authorities, such as the United States Intramural Lacrosse Association (USILA) for collegiate and scholastic level play, and a tournament is held to determine a recognized national collegiate champion each year.
The game is scored by attempting to put a ball into the goal of the opposing team. The ball, of a hard, elastomeric composition is carried and tossed or thrown from a stick. Traditionally the stick was composed of a formed hardwood handle with a triangular net of leather, string or gut at one end. More recently a stick with a metal handle and plastic head has become common. Until recently, the goal, which sat on the ground of the playing field, had consisted of a net-covered frame. This frame consisted of two uprights which were joined by a crossbar at their upper ends, and a triangular base composed of two legs, each attached to the lower end of one of the uprights and joined to the other leg. The triangular base extended to the rearward perpendicular to the plane of the goal mouth formed by the uprights and the crossbar. Approval and use of modern materials for the lacrosse stick as described above has led to harder and faster shots on the goal, and this led to problems with the traditional form of the goal. A ball thrown at the goal from the side would occasionally pass through the goal mouth, technically scoring a goal, and bounce directly back out onto the playing field after contact with a portion of the leg immediately rearward to the goal mouth. Because of the speed of the shot, an official might not be able to judge whether the shot crossed the goal mouth and struck the leg, and should thus be ruled a goal, or merely struck an upright, resulting in no goal and the continuation of play.
The number of instances of this type of uncertainty has led at least one rule-making authority to ban the use of this traditional goal. They insisted that league play take place with a goal with no rear leg members, and in which the upright frame members had extensions which continued into the ground. The net, which was traditionally anchored in some fashion to the legs of the goal, was instead to be anchored directly on the ground. While such a goal was able to overcome the problem described above, there were several reaons why it was not generally regarded as suitable. The first problem with the use of such a goal was its permanence. The prior goal had the advantage of its portability, and could be moved from the playing field if the field was to be used for other activities. Anchoring the uprights and the net to the ground precluded this kind of portability and use of the field for any other purpose was thus complicated. Secondly, occasional weather changes causing repeated freezing and thawing caused the uprights to rise out of the ground. This creates a difficulty in keeping the area of the goal mouth of a regulation size.